Sunny Knight: a Pony's Tale

by TheothersideofSunny968

Enemies on Every Side

Another horrified scream filled the halls of the former IronLock prison as Charming Knightmare fell to his knees, steam raising from his body as King Sombra stood over him. The shadow king glared down at the so called 'humble servant'.

"Forgive me, sir..." the grey unicorn pleaded as he looked up at Sombra. "I... I only meant..."

"To make your guard shifts over my son's dreams more 'bearable'?" Sombra growled as he shot more dark magic from his horn at Charming Knightmare, causing him great pain. After several more long moments, Sombra stopped the flow of dark magic and put his dominant hoof on Chamring's head, applying enough pressure to make the stallion cry out in pain. "Know this, my son is free to dream about anything he wants. Including getting married. I want my son to pursue a life that he will enjoy. And if you interfere with that, or cause him any more harm, I won't hesitate to rip that amulet out of you and shove you in the darkest cell this prison has to offer. DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?!"

Sombra's roar echoed off the walls and filled the entire Prison. Every soldier, every inmate shivered as his voice hit them. They knew Charming Knightmare had gone behind the king's back,
but in what what way, none of them were sure. But the experience served as a warning to all; if anypony was thinking of betraying the king, they best forget those thoughts and bury them deep, deep down in the farthest corners of their minds.

As Sombra lifted his hoof from Charming, the shadow king took a few steps back, thinking of his next plan of action. "But despite your motivations and intentions, you did prove the changelings and their handler are ready for the next phase. Have Surgical send a teams to the island, Canterlot, and the Empire. It's time to get out plans into action."

"I want in" a stallion's familiar voice called out from the entry way. Looking over at the pony, Sombra and Charming were surprised to see Snowstorm standing there, ready for orders in his royal armor, a determined look in his eye.

Sighing slightly, Sombra went over to the former warden of the prison. "Snowstorm, I appreciate everything you did for me. But this is-"

"Sir! Forgive me for speaking out of turn!" Snowstorm began to say. "But I am fully aware of the situation and the risks, sir. And I wish to fight along side you!... please, sir. Let me do what I feel is right."

Sombra was half ready to wipe the stallion's mind and drop him in a near by village, up until he said that last phrase. The words reminded the king so much of his son. 'Let me do what I feel is right...'

Sighing, Sombra nodded. "As you wish, Snowstorm. But take this as my only warning; betray me or go against my wishes, and you'll suffer a worse fate then Charming over there..."

The tall grey unicorn steadied himself and withheld a glare he so eagerly wished to shoot at Sombra as he picked up his top hat and dusted it off.

" I understand, sir" Snowstorm said then saluted the king. "I await my orders, sir!"

It had been a few short weeks since Salted Carmel took down the changeling hive. The thrill he got from watching it all topple down on Chrysalis's head was better then he could have imagined. He had finally gotten his revenge, and then some. Stealing all her 'loyal' subjects was an excellent bonus. But despite all he had accomplished, something felt wrong.

The amazingly strong earth pony sat around a camp fire about three miles from the base of the foal mountains where the IronLock prison stood. It was there that the earth-pony set up camp to enjoy his newly found freedom. Unfortunately his celebrating was less then enjoyable.

Looking up across the camp fire, the muscular earth pony saw his traveling companion, the changeling he had saved from the hive. The changeling didn't say much when they first met and left the hive behind, but once the creature was free from his tormentors, and his exoskeleton began to heal, leaving barely noticeable scars, the Changeling actually gave Salted his name. Thorax.

His head shooting up from gazing deep into the fire, Thorax looked across at Salted, wondering what he was thinking. He didn't know how to break the ice with ponies, but the changeling was willing to try. "Ugh... Mr. Salted? What do we do now?"

Salted looked to Thorax, then back to the fire, saying nothing. Not even a low growl.

"I mean..." Thorax didn't want to pry into a sensitive areas, given the fact that Salted hated changelings but still spoken on Thorax's behalf when that crazy doctor wanted to experiment on him back at the prison. Thorax was grateful. But... there still was so much the changeling felt was missing from his life. Including meaning. "... I just don't know what we should do after this..."

Sighing, Salted looked around and picked up a stick. Knowing that Cynical was the only pony who could understand him, Salted began writing a message out to Thorax in the dirt bedside him. As he wrote, Thorax couldn't help but peek across at what Salted was writing;

'Chrysalis is no more.
You go find purpose.
I stay here.'

When Thorax finished reading the message, he could hardly believe his eyes. He grasped and frantically looked to Salted. "B-b-but you're my only friend! Nopony likes changelings! And with the hive gone..."

Salted brushed the old message away with his hoof then began writing a new one;

'You were like me,
Wild, angry, animal.
You're not anymore.
You're free.
I'm nopony's friend.
I serve no more purpose.
Still animal.'

After spitting the stick out of his mouth, Salted let Thorax read the message over and over again. After the changeling did, his head sunk, and both of them found each other looking into the fire for the longest time. Both taking in what Salted had written. Even though he was the one who wrote the message, Salted could hardly believe that's how he felt. But it was true. He knew it was true. The muscular stallion never gave his life any more purpose except to end Chrysalis's rein. Which he did.

"... I... I was thinking about checking out Ponyville..." Thorax broke the silence. "... I know it sounds stupid. But I want more to my life then just feeding off of love. I want to have friends. Real friends. And they say that Ponyville is home to the 'Princess of Friendship'. If there's anypony who can help me make friends, its her... if I 'can' make make friends with other ponies... you could come with me, you know..."

Growing tired of the conversation, Salted wrote in the dirt with his hoof one last short message;

'Go to bed'

Then the chained earth pony rolled over and started to fall asleep.

The changeling could hardly believe that Salted was being so cold to him after saving him from the hive. But understood where he was coming from. Even though Throax had nothing to do with anypony's kidnapping, he knew what was going on. How Chrysalis was taking ponies form their homes and bringing them to the hive to hypnotize them into believing the disguised changelings were their loved ones and that the hive was their home. The tricked ponies never saw the hive as the hive, but rather whatever their homes looked like. Salted was one of the ponies taken. But unlike the rest, something snapped inside of him. And rage replaced love as the last bit of love was drained from him.

'What a hard life he's lived.... he doesn't even remember who he was before all this happened... he lost all memory of his previous life and only lives with anger and rage. If there was anypony who would need a friend, it was him...' sighing and deciding it was best to just get some sleep, Thorax rolled over and covered himself with a pile of leaves.

Before the changeling went right to sleep, he turned his head slightly and said to Salted "no matter what you say, I still think of you as my friend... I hope I can repay your kindness one day."

But the muscular Salted appeared to be fast sleep. With thinking his words went unheard, Thorax went right to sleep himself, knowing he would need the rest for his long journey tomorrow for Ponyville. Little did he know that Salted was wide away, with a small tear running down his cheek.

Chrysalis's head was spinning as she slept. She could barely keep her thoughts together as the nightmares turned to just darkness. Like the very darkness she and her changelings were born into, on that horrid day many, many years ago. But darkness was preferable to the monstrous images and haunting pain of what she had gone though. That behemoth of a pony, who knew he would come back, let alone with that kind of power. At the very thought of him, Salted's monstrous face flashed before her eyes and Chrysalis jolted awake.

"AH!...." looking around, the changeling queen soon relized she was not in the rubble that was her hive, rather, she was laying down in a big, plushy, and fluffy pink bed. "How... did I get here?"

As Chrysalis looked around, she began to cringe at her surroundings. Not only was the bed fluffy and pink, but so was the carpeting in the room, the lamp shades, even the picture frames were covered in pink fur! The furniture, on the other hoof, were just pink. Everything was a slightly different shade of pink, but pink none the less.

Just as Chrysalis was about to get up and out of bed, she felt a sharp pain in her chest and fell back into the bed. Looking down at her abdomen, she was surprised to see somepony had bandaged her up. The pain still lingered, but she could have been a lot worse off.

Chrysalis was about to fall back asleep, sensing no immediate danger, she heard a rather disgusting noise, like somepony passing gas. Looking up, the changeling queen immediately found the source. It was a big ball of fur, like a pillow with legs. Her bright blue eyes, ears, and a red tongue that stuck out of a tiny muzzle were the only signs that this creature wasn't a actually a piece of furniture.

The odd fur creature had been blowing raspberries to grab Chrysalis's attention. When she felt she had it, the pinkie fluffy creature set a tray of food in front of Chrysalis. Two sandwiches in the shape of hearts, two fudge brownies in a similar shape, a tall glass of milk, and a small pill with a note behind it saying 'pain killer'.

Chrysalis was very confused by the notion that somepony would aid her in any way. But if somepony really wanted to hurt her, they could have left her where she was. The Queen hesitated for a moment, looking back and forth between the food being offered to her and the odd looking... pony?... who was offering it. Ultimately, Chrysalis's hunger won out, and the queen of the changelings began to dig into the food.

Fluffle Puff who actually saved Chrysalis after Salted and the others left, watched happily and grasped with joy as she watched her new house guest eat her first meal in days. Fluffle Puff knew they were destined to be the best of friends! The pink fluff ball began fantasizing about her and Chrysalis decorating for Hearthswarming, or dressing up for nightmare night, and maybe even traveling together!

Flufflepuff had great plans in store for her and her new friend. But only after Chrissy was all healed up. And Fluffle Puff wouldn't leave Chrysalis's side until the changeling queen was 100% healed.

Looking up to the setting sun in the sky, Celestia sighed as she hung her head. She knew she had been away for long enough. She had put her duties off on Luna for far too long. It was time she returned to active duty.

"What's the matter, Celestia?" One of the mares of the island asked as she plopped her surfboard in the sand next to where Celestia had been sitting to watch the sunset

"Nothing you need to worry about, young one... but I think it's about time I be leaving" Celestia admitted, shocking a dozen island dwelling ponies that were in earshot. "I'll leave in the morning, after raising the sun. I'll send a letter to my sister tonight to let her know that I'll have the morning covered. That way she can get a good morning's rest."

"But your majasty, you still seem so.... so down" one of the other mares approached the sun princess.

"You need to relax a little longer" a stallion who was asleep on the beach woke up and looked over at the princess.

"It's not good for you to try and tackle all that responsibility in your state" another stallion added.

"That is enough" the elderly mare of the island, the one who Celestia had always been fond of and had confide in previously, silenced the other island dwelling ponies as she walked up to the sun princess while speaking to the others still. "Celestia has protected and watched over Equestria for over 1000 years, she has faced many great and terrible things. 'She' knows when she is ready."

"Thank you, Miss" Celestia thanked the elder mare.

"You are most welcome, Celestia" the elderly mare shot the princess a wrinkly smile.

"Would you... maybe want to show us your legendary surfing skills before you leave?" A younger mare asked, looking up at the sun princess.

"Yeah! You're a surfing legend around here!" The stallion from before threw out there.

"Well..." Celestia thought about it. It had been quite a while since she even picked up a surf board, but she remembered the great joy it brought to her. Celestia was on the fence about it, until two mares brought out her old surf board and presented it to her. They had polished it up like new and kept up on it's maintenance all these years so the wood would be as strong as ever.

"Well, since you took such good care of my board... and it is my last night, why not! Surf's up everypony!" The sun princess smiled as she grabbed the long white surfboard in her golden magical aura and took to the ocean.

As she began to peddle out to sea, feeling the waves begin to gain momentum, Celestia felt young again. The smell of the ocean, the feel of the water, it all washed away her worries. As the ponies on shore watched as Celestia coated herself in her own golden magical aura, illuminating her body and the water around her, they picked up several instruments and began to play one of their favorite surfing songs. The music combined with the visual aid of princess Celestia shredding across the nightly waters with her golden glow was a sight to behold. The ponies on shore couldn't help but begin singing along with the sound of the music...

(https://youtu.be/X1ZUMqcLBr0)

After surfing for what felt like hours, Celestia finally came back to the shore and was greeted with cheers and applause from everypony.

"Well I must say, that was fun!" Celestia said as she wiped some sweat from her brow. She was about to ask for a drink when somepony offered her a fruity drink served in a coconut shell. "Why thank you. I was getting rather thirsty."

As the princess began to drink down the entire coconut full, several of the island ponies watched with vile smiles that grew on their muzzles as mischievous red eyes watched. The sounds of flickering wings and the subtle hissing of their tongues went unnoticed as Celestia drank down her beverage. But once the princess was down with her drink, the overly excited island ponies returned to their usual state.

"Oh... wow... I guess surfing took more out of me then I thought" Celestia commented as she raised a hoof to her head. "I think... I better get some rest..."

"As you wish, your majesty" one of the island ponies said, aiding the along the princess back to her room. When Celestia was far enough off the beach, several of the mares and stallion's who appeared to be native to the island chuckled and gave each other high hooves. "Rest as long as you like..."

Author's Note:

Hey guys!

I know I said this a few chapters ago, but again, I already sited that Flufflepuffknew puff is not an oc that I created (and neither is the odd fascination she has with the changeling queen) but it all played out well.

I hope you are enjoying the story this far. Things are going to pick up speed as there aren't less 'slice of life' chapters an drew more that involve the main story line.

Thanks again for reading!

And hey! If you guys are reading this, obviously you are a fan (I hope?) so I want to do something special. If you guys have an idea for a chapter, a stand alone fic involving one of the ocs it omen of my fics, or you just want to bounce some ideas over to me you would like to see written, you can either message me here, of via FB. My name is 'John Killebrew'